Punjab okays integrated maintenance plan for rural link roads: Jathedar Tota Singh

Chandigarh, July 2, 2014: The Punjab Government today Okayed comprehensive integrated plan for adopting a coordinated strategy for upkeep and maintenance of village link roads under Punjab Mandi Board to give a fillip to rural economy of the state.
Punjab Agriculture Minister Jathedar Tota Singh, while approving the plan, said that Punjab that made a mark in the country by becoming first state to link all the 13,000 villages with link roads, has to emerge leading player for adopting a coordinating approach for their upkeep and maintenance, he felt that certain roads remain neglected due to dispute of inter-village territory and therefore he is decided that a road linking to particular villages would come under one XEN to remove that ambiguity
All link roads which fall under the jurisdiction of two Market Committees connecting two villages would be brought under the control of one Executive engineer for proper maintenance and re-carpeting. Control of such link roads would be handed over to the Executive Engineer of the market committee which has the more than 50 % share of that link road but funds and expenses for such link roads would be shared by the both the market committees.
Jathedar Tota Singh said that this decision has been taken in the presence of senior officials of the department to facilitate the people. He said that it was a common practice that when link roads falling under two market committees people have to suffer because one market committee constructs or repair only their part of the link road and other part remains untouched.